Col. Manrique's journey

Ken Taber and Col. Fernando Manrique

I would have bet the house that the last thing my 'ole roommate would do would be to join the US military. In the school prophesies that we wrote for the last edition of The Musketeer in 1976, I jokingly had Fernando instigating a revolution somewhere in Latin America or Europe.

Being from Colombia and having been sent to Hargrave under rather false pretenses, Fernando always seemed to carry a bit of a grudge toward the concept of military school and the US in general. The military school one is obviously understandable. And so was the grudge against the US, if you happen to look at it from the Latin American perspective... very normal indeed. I didn't carry this feeling with me because I had been raised in the US since I was 4 years of age. Even though I am of Latin American origin, I've always identified more culturally with North America.

The amazing thing is that Fernando ended up pursuing the two things that he most disliked as a teenager... a military life and a career with the US government. He will be the first to admit that both the Air Force and the US have been extremely good to him, and he has no regrets. In fact, he's extremely proud of the uniform he wears and his service career. Fernando ended up marrying a wonderful North American woman, and both of their children are fairly "true blue".

Keep in mind, though, that ideologically and philosophically Fernando hasn't changed all that much... clearly he's infinitely better read, traveled and experienced. He and his family lived in Japan for many years. He still has an extremely independent nature to him and is very outspoken in private. But he has learned (as we all have to some degree) to pick and choose his battles and be smart about it, particularly when it comes to divisive and very emotional issues. One learns and becomes wiser with age, although there often remains an idealistic flame within many of us.

When Fernando and I got together a few months ago, it was as if time had stood still. Were it not for his blue uniform, leather jacket and receding hairline, and a few additional pounds, Fernando is nearly the same person I knew in 1974-76. And that is a good thing because we were able to talk freely and relate. We did not leave our first encounter in more than two decade with the sad thought, "Gosh, what ever happened to the guy I knew?"

After he left HMA, Fernando went on to graduate from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He eventually earned his PhD degree. In a couple of years, he will retire from active duty with his 20 years. He will be returning to live in Colorado, and he told me that his dream post-retirement career would be head of the Languages Department at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

Fernando was an extremely intelligent student at Hargrave. Probably the brightest and most capable of the Class of '76. He didn't try very hard, and yet everything came very easy to him and he got excellent grades. Prior to arriving at Hargrave, Fernando had gone to a great British school in Bogota. I don't think Hargrave challenged Fernando much academically, but I do think that the school helped him mature and perhaps knocked his ego down a few notches...

Ego notching down is a Hargrave strength. It is this one thing that probably helped the colonel adjust, survive and prosper in North American society.

Ripley pays tribute to Marines

The Richmond Council of the Navy League celebrated the Nov. 10 birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps a few days early yesterday with a rousing speech from one of its most decorated members.

Col. John W. Ripley, awarded the Navy Cross and other medals for heroism during the war in Vietnam, talked to about 160 people at the Willow Oaks County Club about toughness, eadership and team work.

Though retired, he made it clear, "Once you're a Marine, you're always a Marine."

Ripley, a native of Radford, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1962. According to the Navy League, he shares the distinction with one other Marine of having the most combat xperience in the Corps.

In Vietnam, he rescued the crew of one downed helicopter by loading them into another helicopter. On Easter 1972, he swung hand-to-hand under a bridge at Dong Ha for several hours packing the span's steel beams with 500 pounds of explosives so it could be blown up, denying the enemy a way across the river.

"The cheapest way to kill the enemy is to send a Marine with a rifle," Ripley told the appreciative crowd. The Marine, he said, gives the United States the best return on defense dollars.

"Austerity has been a way of life in the Marine Corps. Indeed, it is a religion to us, to be the leanest of services."

Noting the current film about the Corps' flag raising on Iwo Jima, "Flags of Our Fathers," Ripley pointed out that one of the six flag raisers was a U.S. Navy corpsman. At Iwo Jima, said Ripley, he Marines suffered 25,000 casualties out of a force of 75,000. Among them were 300 Navy corpsmen, he said.

Iwo Jima, he said, was the only battle in the history of the Corps where the Marines suffered more casualties than the enemy. "That's because we ran out of enemy," he said, prompting aughter.

"I learned how to adapt well in conditions of misery, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, short rations, grief of loss, staggering heat, biting cold, sustained filth," he said.

Ripley, former president of Southern Virginia College in Buena Vista and Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, is a former director of the Marine Corps History and Museums Division.

By Frank Green
The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Some of Hargrave's finer selling points

(photo courtesy of Henry H. Mitchell)

I nearly went to Fork Union, were it not for a few "little things" that caught my father's attention about Hargrave in early 1974. Basically, I think my father simply liked the physical layout of Hargrave. It was more stately than Fork Union's more spread out campus with its rather drab greyish buildings.

In a sense, Fork Union fit more closely the "image" of a traditional military academy. Hargrave looked more like a grand university, with its majestic four-columned main building. Hargrave looked less somber than Fork Union; it appeared more "big league" to my father. For some reason, my father also felt that the cadets looked sharper than those at Fork Union. Who knows what exactly he saw. Perhaps he happened to catch cadets at Fork Union at a down time when most were dressed in gym attire, while we may have visited Hargrave during a formation or during class hours. In any case, my father was better impressed by the manner of dress at HMA.

Then, of course, there was the 'ole statue in front of Cheatham Chapel. That really appealed to my father. He thought it was sharp (... note, the word "sharp" is a staple of my father's vocabulary... look sharp, be sharp, stay sharp!). When my father read the words at the base of the statue... well, he was sold. How does it go?... "I came here a boy. I left a man." Something like that... Huge huge selling point! Never underestimate the power of a statue and an inspirational saying to go with it. Don't know if Fork Union has something comparable.

Lastly, my father liked the name "Hargrave". The name "Fork Union" didn't seem to strike a chord with my father. But "Hargrave" definitely did. Keep in mind that my father's first language is Spanish. He left Honduras in his late-20s to continue his medical studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 1963--the year President Kennedy was shot. He speaks English perfectly well, but occasionally my father misses a detail or subtlety or two.

I am convinced that when he heard the name "Hargrave" spoken, his mind processed "Hard grave". Well, for a macho Latin American man like my father, that was another fine selling point. Any school named "Hard grave" just had to be a no-nonsense institution... and that was where he was going to send his eldest son!

No doubt Fork Union is an excellent military academy, and I probably would have done fine or maybe even better there than at Hargrave. We'll never know. Fact of the matter, I was destined for Hargrave. With such a fine series of selling points, how could it have been otherwise?

The '61 basketball team

In October 1960 a group of young basketball prospects assembled in Hargrave Military Academy's beautiful new gymnasium to get ready for a tough, twenty-game schedule. No one dreamed that from this group would come, as most people said in the end, the most highly-touted team ever to play at Hargrave. No one could have guessed that by season-end this handful of boys would become the most publicized, the most potent, and the most admired of them all. As the Danville Register and Bee said, “These boys will forever be embellished on Hargrave's athletic roll of honor….”

After winning five pre-season games (Halifax, George Washington, Whitmell, and two with Martinsville), the Hargrave Tigers went to John D. Bassett to open the regular season. The Tigers won. On the following night they played the first game ever to be played in Hargrave's new gym against Hampden-Sydney College's freshman team, and broke in the new place with a 91-75 victory.

On a four-day trip through Pennsylvania, the team slipped by Lebanon Valley College's freshman team by two points, took two overtimes to win over a determined Wyoming Seminary prep team, then made it a clean sweep by downing the Susquehanna University freshmen.

Back home, now behind tremendous cadet support, the roundballers beat the Lynchburg College freshmen to make it six wins without a loss.

Now, taking on competition in the military league, in its first year of organized existence, the Tigers met Staunton, easily the toughest assignment in the league. The local courtmen pleased the home crowd with a hard-earned win, 80-71. Next they won from the second best opponent, Greenbriar, as they passed the century mark, 108-80.

In a two-day round-robin at Staunton involving four teams, the undefeated Tigers took on Massanutten and, though having a rough go of it physically, won again. The next night they lost their first and only game for the season. A strong, revenge-seeking [Staunton] Hilltopper crew knocked the HMA team from the ranks of the unbeaten to the convincing tune of 80-58.Getting up from the fall, they showed Augusta the way by a score of 70-51 and then left league play long enough to drop John D. Bassett. Massanutten then forfeited a make-up game, and the Tigers started down tht estretch with a win over Augusta, and an impressive victory over Greenbriar, 110-82, which proved to be the only loss the fighting cadets had suffered at home all season.

Hargrave made it 15 out of 16 with a win over Fork Union, then took an outside team, Hampden-Sydney Frosh, at Death Valley by a score of 85-63. Two wins over Fishburne brought the courtmen to their last regular season game at Fork Union. With a victory there, the winning Tigers ended the season with the most wins and the best record of any team ever to represent Hargrave.

In the military tournament held at HMA (the location of the tournament rotates among the military schools alphabetically) the Hargrave team drew a first-round bye because of being regular season winners. Greenbriar beat Fishburne, Massanutten won over Augusta, and Staunton took Fork Union in routine fashion. In the semi-finals Massanutten gave Staunton a go for it before bowing out, and Hargrave won from Greenbriar to make for the “natural” final pairing.

The consolation game found Massanutten pulling the tourney's only upset over Greenbriar, then … the finals … who would it be? Each [Staunton and Hargrave] had almost identical records; they had split regular season games.

“This was unquestionably Hargrave's finest hour in sports. A capacity crowd, limp after forty minutes of heart-stopping basketball, was on its feet,” for, with the support of the greatest cadet corps ever, and with the help of God, the Tigers had won, 81-79.

-The Cadence, 1961

Looking for missing classes

The oldest alumnus we have on the Hargrave Alumni Forum is Charles R. White of the Class of 1946. Next is Leon Rue of the Class of 1949 and Edward C. Wiegand of the Class of 1950. We have representatives of many classes since 1950, except for 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2004 and 2005.

If you belong to one of these "missing" classes, please join the forum by sending a blank e-mail to hargravealumni-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ...

Do so also if you belong to the Class of 1948, 1947 or classes before 1946. Do so also if you belong to the classes we already have represented: 1946, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

Walter B. Jones

Congressman Walter Jones [1961 graduate of HMA] tuned his Greenville office television to CNN Thursday morning.

Jones' stance on U.S. involvement in that country has garnered headlines for the six-term U.S. representative, who recently broke ranks with many Republicans on Capitol Hill by announcing his impatience with the lack of a concrete plan for withdrawing American forces.

The District 3 congressman from Farmville said his outspokenness about how the country was led into the war, and the conduct of the campaign so far, won't hurt his current re-election bid, where he faces Democrat Craig Weber of Atlantic Beach.

That's because people are becoming aware of arguments made by people such as Greg Newbold, an East Carolina University graduate and retired Marine lieutenant general — "one of the bravest men I have ever known," Jones, 63, said. "He gave up a third star because he saw the lies and the distortion that got us into Iraq."

During an interview at his Greenville district office on Thursday, Jones read from Newbold's article in the April edition of Time magazine titled "Why Iraq Was a Mistake:"

"From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq — an unnecessary war," Jones read.

"Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat — al-Qaeda."

Jones criticized the Bush administration for its portrayal of Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction program, which formed the basis upon which Jones voted for military action. No WMDs have been found in Iraq. The congressman said the administration misled he and others were, though he stops short of naming Bush among the culprits.

Jones said District 3 voters will understand his position.

Why?

"Because," he said, "the people know that I have made my decision (based) on the research and the investigation" he has conducted, citing his interviews with CIA operatives, a cabinet member's chief of staff, generals and others.

"(Voters) read the newspapers, they see the TV, they understand when people like this are speaking out," he said, tapping on a copy of Newbold's column. "I can never send a person to die for this country unless I know it is absolutely necessary. And when the questions have been coming out for three years now about the justification, was it justified or was it manipulated, I don't know how anyone can say that they want an elected official that does not want to know the truth."

In June 2005, Jones signed a bipartisan resolution urging President Bush to devise a concrete plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"I think people are beginning to understand that ... I want to do what's right based on the facts, not based on the wishes of somebody," he said.

About 70 Pitt and Beaufort County Republicans gave Jones a warm reception Friday night. He was stumping for N.C. House candidate Hood Richardson at a farm between Grimesland and Chocowinity. Jones limited his references to the war to prayers for U.S. soldiers and their families.

Applause punctuated Jones' comments on issues central to his party: lower taxes, gay marriage and illegal immigration.

"I'm more concerned about terrorists coming from Central and South America than I am about terrorists coming from Iraq," he said Friday night.

During the interview Thursday, Jones also touched on the possible effects his campaign may experience due to fellow Republican Rep. Mark Foley's resignation. Foley, of Florida, is being investigated for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails to teenage pages working on Capitol Hill.

Jones said that controversy wouldn't affect his campaign.

"I hope I'm known for my integrity," he said. "I hope I'm known — whether people agree with me or not — for my moral character. From the very first day I heard about (the Foley case), I said, 'If there's anybody in (the Republican) leadership who has known about this, weeks or months or years ago, then they need to resign.'"

Javier Castillo, chairman of the Pitt County Republican Party, doubted that Iraq or Foley would negatively affect Jones' chances.

"I personally believe not, because Walter has done a great job for his district," Castillo said. Voters may disagree with Jones on that one issue (Iraq), but District 3 voters likely agree with him on most things, and approve of his services in the district, Castillo added.

Richardson echoed Castillo's sentiment on Iraq.

"Republicans don't have to march in lock-step on all the issues," he said.

Johnny Rouse, Pitt County Democratic Party chairman, took the opposite view.

"I think, if anything, it'll hurt him with the core Republican voters," Rouse said. They may choose not to vote at all out of disgruntlement over Jones' criticisms of the Iraq war, he added.

Neither Castillo nor Rouse believed the Foley scandal would affect the incumbent.

"Mark Foley's in Florida, and he's already quit, so that's a problem for electors in Florida, not here," Castillo said.

Rouse said the scandal "may hurt the Republicans' image as the party of quote-unquote values, but I don't think it should affect" Jones. "It would be unfair to paint him" with the actions attributed to his Republican colleague, Rouse said.

By T. Scott Batchelor
sbatchelor@coxnc.com
The Daily Reflector

Hargrave in the fall

It is a cool 43 degrees today and windy here in northern Virginia. The leaves on the trees are spectacular in their range of colors. Halloween and Thanksgiving are just around the corner. For some reason, it just feels like Hargrave today. I sense this powerful desire to go find my black jacket.

I recall always being cold. There was certainly nothing warm and cozy about the barracks. I can still feel the icey wind blowing through the obviously poorly caulked window in our (... my roommate was Fernando Manrique of Colombia) room. That old radiator (great for drying socks and underwear) beneath our window sometimes gave off sufficient heat and sometimes very little. I guess it depended on how well the boiler was functioning on a given day. Those old standard-issue wool blankets (dark olive color) were adequate, but it took a while to warm up once you slid into bed.

Getting up in the chilly mornings before the sun rose and standing in formation waiting to march to the mess hall for a powdered eggs breakfast certainly didn't give me a toasty feeling either.

Yet, there exists a strange longing in my gut for southern Virginia, Chatham and Hargrave in the fall... cold hallway floors and bathrooms and all.

The Quartermaster's hats

The day before my parents drove me to Hargrave to begin my junior year, I got together with two of my best friends and went out for a drive in the country, in southern Virginia. The primary aim of the outing was to find a barber shop and have a kind of ritualistic hair cutting in preparation for my upcoming two-year "exile" from the world as we teenagers knew it.

I had just turned 17 and my hair was nearly down to my shoulders. Deep down inside I always suspected that it was the "hair thing" that was at the root of my father's desire to send me off to military school. Yeah, there was the problem of my poor grades and the looming possibility that I might start to hang out with the wrong crowd in town. But I just knew that that long hair was the true source of the discomfort between me and my father. Hargrave offered the "final solution" to the hair issue.

My friends Richard, Mark and I took off one morning in my family's yellow Chevy Vega and drove toward Lawrenceville, VA. I wanted to take one last look at my old high school, Brunswick Academy, to which I had slowly developed an attachment and a high level of comfort during 10th grade. Brunwick was located down the road from the center of Lawrenceville.

As we drove through town, I noticed a small barber shop. I must have looked at my friends and said something like, "Okay guys, let's get it over with, let's do it." Of course, Richard and Mark were loving every minute of it. Both of them had long hair, and must have felt an element of fear and sorrow for me. However, they were going to milk this moment for all it was worth!

I sat down in the barber's chair, almost as if I were sitting down in the electric chair or laying my head beneath the guillotine. It gave me the shivers. It felt surreal, as if... "This really couldn't be happening to me... I'm going to lose my freedom AND my hair?"

Well, it felt like an eternity. But before long, the deed was done. Three-quarters of my hair was gone... on the floor. I looked like a freek! Short hair. Now, I definitely had to go to military school, because there was no way I could go back to Brunswick like this. I knew somehow it would all work out, but at that precise moment in time it seemed my life was over.

The next morning, we left early for Chatham. My whole family went. My parents, my brothers, my sister. They helped me settle in. My mother took me into town to buy some shelves for my stereo and books. We probably had lunch somewhere... kind of a "last meal" kind of thing. They were gone by late afternoon, and I was left in my room in the B Company barracks... left to ponder my fate and begin making the mental adjustments that I would need to survive and hopefully flourish in my new environment. My first roommate, Mike Miller, came in and introduced himself. We exchanged pleasantries.

Ultimately, B Company was little more than a weigh station, as I ended up in Band. I figured if I had to be in a military school, I would at least have some fun and play drums... not carry a rifle.

The next day, I received instructions for a range of things, I'm sure. At some point that day, I was guided to the quartermaster's shop (in the basement below the mess hall) to get outfitted with everything I would need to look like a cadet. My grey trousers and coat, my white dress trousers, my grey shirts, my white shirts, my black tie, my belt, my black wool jacket, my black shoes, my shoe polish kit, my insignias, and of course... my hat.

I searched around for several minutes for a hat that fit me properly. Must have tried on five or six hats before a kindly gentleman with a tape measure slung dangling around his neck came up and picked one out for me (kind of like the scene in Ollivadner's Wands from the first Harry Potter movie). I tried it on, but the hat was still too small. The quartermaster looked up at me above his glasses, which balanced on the end of his nose. He paused for a second and quickly decided the hat would do... "No, the hat will fit you fine son after you get your hair cut."

What? "But I just got a hair cut!" I thought to myself in disbelief. "You gotta be kidding me."

I quickly resigned myself. After all, to whom would I complain, reason with? I knew from that very moment that things were going to be pretty black and white. All those shades of grey that previously had given me some wiggle room were gone.

The quartermaster's name was Lt Col. John L. Beaver. Col Beaver died on June 1, 1980, a few years after I graduated from Hargrave in 1976.

Col. Beaver was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, June 8, 1915, a son of the late John Alexander Beaver and Florence Beatrice Eagle Beaver. He was a graduate of Wingate College and Elon College, and attended the American University of Shrivenham, England. He was a veteran of the US Army and spent most of his life in Pittsylvania County, teaching at Schoolfield High School and serving as a teacher, coach, and athletic director at Hargrave . At the time of his death, he was the quartermaster at Hargrave.